Iran: Pro-Government Demonstrations All over the Country

“One thing is clear: the developments in Iran today are not comparable to the time before the downfall of the Shah. Back then, the country was united against the Shah. There were no two sides to speak of. If there had been two sides, the US would have conveniently arranged for a coup. Today in Iran, there are two sides. It won’t be a simple transition of power. More likely, it will be a messy and bloody conflict between the two sides, and both will resort to violence to push ahead. Like in Lebanon, the US media wanted you to believe that there was one side, only. We now know it was not the case.” — As’ad AbuKhalil, “Iran Protests: Covering the Other Side” (Angry Arab News Service, 31 December 2009)

Monthly Review Essays

Historically, capitalism develops institutions and ideologies that justify surplus extraction and capital accumulation. In the last decades of the twentieth century, the financialization of capitalism initiated a new era of accumulation which is known in academic contexts as finance-capital-driven neoliberalism.

Both Sweezy and Dimitrov agree that fascism arises in the middle class and becomes a threat when the bourgeoisie embraces it, but Sweezy’s unique contribution is to demonstrate fascism’s relationship to the postwar transitional period of class equilibrium.